CAF reveal dates for AFCON 2023, W/Cup 2022 draw for final play-off
Africa’s football governing body, CAF, has revealed dates and times for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations Cote D’ivoire 2023 preliminary draw. CAF also announced the dates and times for the draw for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 African final play-off.
The 2023 AFCON draw, according to CAF, will be held on Friday, January 21, 2022 at 15:00hrs GMT in Douala.
The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, African qualifiers preliminary round (third round) draw on the other hand, takes place 24 hours later on Saturday, January 22 at 1500hrs GMT at the same venue.
“The TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations Cote D’ivoire 2023 Preliminary Round draw will be conducted on Friday, 21 January 2022 at 16h00 (15h00 GMT, 17h00 CAT) in Douala.
“The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, African Qualifiers Third Round draw will be conducted on Saturday, 22 January 2022 at 16h00 at the same venue, in Douala. (15h00 GMT, 17h00 CAT), CAF announced on Monday.
AFCON 2023 PRELIMINARY DRAW
The third round draw will see 12 least ranked teams divided into two levels. At the end, the six highest ranked teams will play against the six least ranked teams with the first leg played at the home grounds of the lower ranked teams.
The six aggregate winners (over the two legs of matches) will join the 42 highest ranked teams into the group stage of the qualifiers. The teams are grouped according to the following levels:
POT 1: Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Gambia, South Sudan and Mauritius.
POT 2: Chad, Sao Tomé and Princpé, Djibouti, Somalia, Seychelles, Eritrea.
FIFA WORLD CUP QATAR 2022 (AFRICAN QUALIFIERS)
For the arrangements, the 10 qualified teams will be divided into two levels based on the official FIFA ranking of the national teams as of November 2021.
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The five highest ranked teams will play against the five least ranked teams with the first leg played at the home grounds of the lower ranked teams.
Based on the FIFA ranking published on November 19 last year after the last round of qualifiers, the distribution of the teams on the two pots shall be as follows:
POT 1: Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Nigeria.
POT 2: Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, DR Congo and Ghana.